Here lately when I've been driving around graphing out points and what not I've been finding bass schooled but I cant for the life of me get them to bite. I've cranked, c-rig, stroked a jig, but I cannot get a bite. They are setup just like you would expect to see bass but cant be 100% sure. Anyone got any on tips on getting these mystery fish to bite??

spoon sometimes will trigger a bite. Also a drop shot. if they are whites or crappie, they will bite the drop shot and not eat it. it is a good indicator that they are not bass. Also, sometimes dragging a jig or c rig very slow will get them to bite if they are not aggressively feeding. sometimes you just have to come back later when they are more active. many times they have small feeding windows and if the timing is wrong they simply wont bite.

You probably answered your on question MYSTERY fish, if your graphs are not set right it can be false readings. When there set right it could be a ghost town, where it just looked like a lot of fish.

I had been thinking about a drop shot, I'll go ahead a rig up a spoon to. Theyre definitely not sand bass or crappie. Im not a very patient deep water guy so i'll have to remember to slow down to. Thanks

Get on top of them and use a crappie jig. All kinds of fish will eat it and you can figure out what you're seeing.

Had this happen the other day at Lewisville. Big arches with streaks just hammering balls of shad. Casting and casting and then the mystery fish began to surface all around me. I was in the middle of a huge school of gar feeding on shad! Caught some bass around the edges but moved on to another area and caught them much better.

Well this isn't my first rodeo using my graph to find and catch bass. I feel like im pretty consistent on being able to identify what im looking at. I was just looking for some new ideas to throw down there on them.

Do you have screen shots of the fish you're trying to make bite? IMO the water temps are too low for schools to be still in their summer grouped up pattern, so you may not be fishing for bass. Another thing to keep in mind is that offshore fishing is about timing. It's been said many times, but there are times during the day the fish aren't interested in biting.

Drop shot if you are pretty sure they are bass and change colors till you get them to bite. The right color many times is a huge factor you just have to figure out which one they want that day.

Yes I was concerned about the water temp also, but I had caught these fish the weekend before. Anyway I went back out yesterday to give them a try and wouldn't you know they are gone. The water has dropped almost 10 degrees. I suppose its time to break out the fall fishing gear.

This makes alot of sense based on what I saw last weekend as well, and I think you just taught me something. We fished a tournament and saw streaks on the graph literally all day, could not for the life of me figure out why I wasn't getting bit. I bet it was gar.

Gar and catfish in the arches the yellow coloring in the arch will be more at the nose of the arch that is your hard return pinging back. There heads are the hardest part of the return that is pinging back, this in return is why the yellow will be at the front of the arch instead of the middle.

Make sure your graph is not in Simulator mode...










Sorry I couldn't resist!

Just never fish deeper than 4 foot. Problem solved.

I agree with bogey, a crappie can be one of the best tools to catch bass when nothing else will. You'll also find out what is under you. Spent a lot of time one day trying everything; casting spoons, c-rig, drop shot, jigging spoons, swim baits, tail spins, swim jigs...etc. Knew the marks on the graph were big fish of some sort. So, broke out the ultra lite (rigged with 20lb braid just in case), set the drag lite and put a double crappie jig rig down on them. Bump, set, rods doubles, and drag starts spinning. Chased the fish down and it was over 8lbs. Got back to the hump and proceeded to catch several more fish all over 5lb. Talk about fun...on an ultra lite!

If that fails, turn the graph off, head to another favorite spot, just fish, and enjoy your time outdoors. Just might get surprised.